Eccentricism: Neither Black, nor White
Eccentricism: Neither Black, nor White Caught White-Handed, Showdown between Intellects! Days ago... "You're going to infiltrate the Soul Society's R&D?" Taigen spoke curiously, his eyes trailing across the balcony of the castle-mounted hideout. '' ''"Does that present a problem, Taigen-san?" Manshin asked with a thin smile across his fair complexioned, violet-tattooed face. '' ''"This kind of mission is usually assigned to one of the other Wolkig Ritters. Such as Schatten Zweifel?" Taigen proposed. '' ''"This kind of mission needs someone of both intellect, to know and process the data I'm looking for, as well as martial strength, in the event things go wrong. Lately, the movements of the Gotei 13 have been wravelled in mystery, not to mention kept in further wraps than the previous Soul Reapers we've dealt with in the past. If they're planning something that could compromise the balance our Order, even the more repulsively soft-hearted Quincy Order is trying to accomplish, then all of our prior work will be for naught," Manshin explained within a serious tone. '' ''Taigen sighed, looked over to the dark horizon that was London city in the distance. His breath turned into mist, through the crisp cold weather. When but a few minutes passed, Taigen raised his hand to give his approval, without turning to face him, "Go, Manshin-san. This mission...must be completed immediately!" "But at once, my friend," Manshin smiled with approval, just before his body enraptured into his own shadow, disappearing from sight. '' The Present... "The security here is certainly lax," Manshin noted, his body moved past a corridor full of unconscious R&D staff members, walking calmly as he shifted towards the main laboratory, "from what I understand, this Taiga's main lab is where he keeps most of his experiments and data files on anything of interested being studied for the Gotei 13's behalf. If only...ah! Here it is!" Coming up to a door labeled "Main Laboratory", Manshin slipped through with another bout of Schatten manipulation, entering quietly without issuing any alarms he could see. His eyes began to scan the room for anything of importance, however, the lights were too dim at the moment for him to make out anything. In the meantime, Taiga Jinkō, the man that the Quincy was looking for, was in his own, isolated section of his laboratory. Alas, the poor Quincy didn't exactly know what sort of trap he was in. But, Taiga could never be too overconfident, and so, he meticulously typed away on the large keyboard in front of him. He made sure to keep his cameras absolutely hidden, all the while slowly altering the direction which the doors and equipment were at: Taiga loves playing around. "''Hehe, let's see how you do, Quincy-san." "Hm?" Manshin's eyes suddenly saw lights turn on, and the room shift in shape, dimension, and layout. At that moment, he realized that the room itself was rigged upon unauthorized entry. With a soft chuckle he sighed as he looked at the doors around him, "Hoooo? I guess this new R&D Head is a bit screwed in the head, hm? Guess I'll have to pick a door in order to move forward." Manshin's eyes shifted from side to side, stuffing his hands into his pockets. A belated sigh escaped his mouth, as a delighted smile crossed his face. Walking towards the center door, he raised his right foot up and slammed it through the door, keeping himself from moving totally through it, watching what would happen to the ring of doors around him. At that moment, a large projection appeared onto the screen. "Voila, Quincy-san! How are you this fine...evening, is it? I have no idea what the outside world is like right now." The voice, and face, of Taiga were projected on the screen, in absolutely devilish glee. "Ah, but of course, I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Taiga Jinkō, that's Jinkō-sama to you, and I am the current Head of this science-place-thing I cannot be bothered naming!" Taiga was being strange, stranger than usual, as he continued, "So you're not an idiot like the rest of them. Hooray! In the meantime, let me summon a few duplicates of myself you can enjoy your time with, okay?" Taiga suddenly moved his hands in the formation of a conductor, leading three duplicates of Taiga to surround Manshin in a triangular formation, each of which were flickering with heat. "Hohō Clones? Given the distance they've formed from their master, I'd wager Kidō was involved with them forming in front of me," Manshin noted as he saw them. The oddity was the fact they were steaming physically, causing Manshin's eyes to widen, "steam? Are they boiling internally unstable spirit energy?" The three of them immediately utilized fluid movements and attempted to enter in a closer range of Manshin, before quite quickly resorting to Kidō, forging an orb of bright blue flames within their hands which flew around them like a , targeting Manshin as the clones moved in synchronized movements. The moment they began charging, Manshin's eyes moved to and fro, registering the swift movements these "duplicates" were making with ease. The fact they were utilizing Kidō meant that they were willing to keep a fair amount of distance from him, not wanting him to come close enough for attack. As the first three Sōkatsuis flew towards his person, he simply leaped above the three orbs of combustible energy, allowing it to explode beneath him, giving him enough force to vault up to the ceiling of the lab. On three of four limbs, he gazed down at the clones briefly from the ceiling as he crouched at a vertically inverted manner. "If they are composed of unstable spirit energy, then Taiga is counting on me destroying them. I'm not positive, but the blast radius may affect the other clones, causing a chain reaction that might topple this death trap room I'm in. I can't chance the idea of escaping through the doors, seeing as they're nothing more than traps...wait...trap doors?!" Manshin realized with widened eyes, as an elated smile flashed across his face. This same moment, another handful of Sōkatsuis flew up towards him, all the while the Clones kept moving at a rapid pace. Clicking his heels together, Manshin smiled with a challenging gleam in his eyes, as he uttered lowly, "Let's see how they can withstand a little blunt force first!" With a single flash of light, the Wolkig Ritter's Strahl Stiefel activated, giving him a instantaneous burst of speed to evade the culminated explosion of Kidō power. Appearing behind one of the clones, Manshin bent forward as he spun his right heel around to connect with the copy's kidney and ribs, discharging a burst of accelerative spirit energy from his boot, aiming to send it flying towards the other rapidly moving clones, specifically aimed to hit them all into the smashed door. As he righted himself, Manshin flexed his fingers, discharging hundreds of transparent threads of spirit energy, ensaring all of the doors, including the opening of which the copies would fly past. "If there really is a lethal trick to these doors, I merely have to send those little copies of his into one, and see what happens. If they ram into one of the other doors, I'll know which one is connected. If its nothing but empty space, I'll be rid of three walking time bombs," Manshin rationalized, as he tighted his fingers into fists, forming a complete circle of blue light, shielding him from any reentry the copies would make, either through explosive or blunt force. As soon as Manshin did so, the clones went through the door. However, something unexpected happened. Within that brief pathway, there were multiple doors that could be entered. Using his own spiritual manipulation, Taiga drifted the three clones into three separate doors. While two of the doors lead to empty spaces, the other door was one that opened right above Manshin, at which a powerful explosion of azure spiritual energy flooded the room. "Hehehehe, having fun are we, Quincy-san?" Taiga's cheerful disposition echoed into the room through his projection; he was enjoying himself. "Above?" Manshin's eyes briefly widened with shock, realizing that even the vaulted ceiling was rigged. The fact that explosive energy was pouring through instead of three bodies, meant that the other two were distributed elsewhere. The fissure of flames, however, didn't get to touch its target. CLAP! With a swift connection of his hands and fingers together, Manshin manipulated the circular wall of glowing blue spirit energy to redistribute into the palms of his entwined hands. Billowing upwards to meet the explosive fire heading downwards, it spread out, unfolding like an enlarged umbrella, as it curtained the flames and allowed them to wash over the doorways on all sides from Manshin. With a sigh, the Quincy allowed his left hand to pocket nonchalantly into a jacket pocket as he spoke back to the ominous voice, "Actually, I'm quite disappointed. I don't think you and I can truly appreciate each other's company this way. Twisting, turning, adjusting, manipulating things within this room and changing the directions of which the doors allow any given object or person passing through it to go other places sounds overly complex. Instead, I'm going to introduce myself personally to you, Taiga-san..." A twisting motion made by his right wrist caused the umbrella of spirit energy to fold over his person. Within but a few seconds, a magnanimously bright light shined from the enclosed flower-like oval, whirring and humming loudly with preparation. Then, it expanded to astronomical proportions within but a second... SHOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! ...the resulting force caused the entire room to be blasted away, as dozens of meters past the point of its restricting enclosure were carved through, just before dissipating into a array of thousands of blue sparks and lights as the energy full dissipated. Sighing, Manshin turned his gaze around the new landscape he carved his way into, interested to see if he was able to see this R&D Captain, or if he walked into another room in this rat maze. "Hi~" Taiga waved rather casually, as he appeared before the Quincy who had dispatched of his clones. "I'm quite surprised you made it here so easily....uh, Quincy-san." Taiga stood up, taking off his labcoat to reveal quite a regal attire; a blue breastcoat lined with gold, to be quite precise. "Now...I'd like to continue this somewhere a bit more...private." Taiga smirked, as quickly, the floor of the room transfigured into his own spiritual power, which quickly caused them to fall onto the soft floor of the room below his own, while sealing up the top room once again. "Now then, shall we?" Taiga asked politely, as he kept his arms folded with a meticulous grin. "Another trapdoor?" Manshin idly thought as his boots clanked onto the tiled floor below. As his silver eyes gazed across the area, he could tell it was stylized to be more of a combat simulation room or a tournament ring, than a simple testing area. When his eyes retraced back to the formally attired Taiga, he took his full presence into account. Despite the regal manner of his dressing, he could tell there was lean muscle hidden beneath the blue folds of trappings he adorned on his person. A single bronze-guarded sword fastened onto his belt, it didn't appear he had many pockets to which to hide other items, though from the way he used his Kidō, he knew it was a moot point. Conjurring items or crafting them out of energy would be a simple matter for someone as skilled as a Gotei 13 Captain of the 12th Division. "Glad you honor me with your presence, Taiga Jinkō," Manshin introduced himself with a heartfelt bow, placing his right hand over his chest as he bowed his head, allowing only his eyes to remain levelly fixated upon Taiga's eccentrically arrogant visage, "allow me to introduce myself. My name is Manshin Hakugin, one of the leaders of the Quincy's feared Wolkig Ritters!" A swift movement from his left wrist and the black jacket's cuffs were undone, revealing a black Quincy cross, adorned with a pair of silver wings. It spun wildly, as it gathered the ambient spirit energy around the atmosphere, forming what looked like a cross with a hole at its epicenter where its vertically aligned handle resided. A two meter wide halo was afixed upon the cross's four flat ends. "How about you dance to the melody of death, my Seijūjikei Kōjaku will create upon this battlefield you christened as your grave, 12th Division Captain?!" Manshin asked as he placed his right hand on the upper half of the handle of the bow's hole, drawing it back a four-pronged string that coalesced and gathered energy. With a piercing cry, Manshin let loose a high-pressurized, cross-shaped arrow two meters long, flying towards Taiga's being with immense force. The slightest tactile contact would rend flesh apart and crack even the most solid stone apart, while impaling steel outright. Taiga, with only a bare movement, collected his spiritual power into a form, before utilizing that same reishi to quickly bond with one another in a polygonal formation, therefore creating a rectangular wall of translucent energy, with a slight thickness that appeared akin to the splitting of space between two points, to which Taiga merely stated, "Dankū." As he did so, the arrow collided with the said shield, causing an impact that created a screeching sound, echoing throughout the empty room. While the shield was being slowly, but surely pierced, Taiga quickly clicked his fingers again, reforging the barrier into a liquid-like formation, clasping the arrow and constricting it, before both dissipating in a brief explosion, causing Taiga to raise his hand in order to prevent any real damage. However, even so, a few scratches appeared from the solid projectile of reishi and his Kidō barrier colliding. But he soon recovered, and quickly sent out , sending out colossal concentrations of kinetic force that began to cause the splitting of hydrogen from oxygen within the space. This consequently created explosions following the wake of the invisible force. Even as the invisible forces spearheaded through space, Manshin's eyes didn't bat a lash. Inhaling slightly, the halo ring widened a single meter around his bow, coalescing energy at a swifter rate and with much more condensed focus. Uttering but two words, he let loose his volley, "Dreifach Brand!" Releasing the quad-strung projectiles, three arrows left the bow, moving at a much swifter and higher velocity than before. When their edges touched the explosive kinetic forces, they split it down the middle, turning into a triage of blue-white fire that streamed across the air towards Taiga's person, intending on dousing him with spirit-energy feasting tongues that'd be nigh difficult to quench. "I hope you like a shower of Heiliges Feuer, Captain Jinkō," Manshin uttered with a cool smile, keeping his bow held ready, never once lowering his guard in front of his newfound enemy. "Hehehe." Taiga quite readily snickered, and exclaimed, "Enkōsen!" Immediately, a circular barrier of yellow energy crackled as it formed before him, staving off the initial wave of flames. "Tsuzuri Raiden!" In that instant, he channeled electrical energy into the barrier on a touch, creating a wave of static energy that pulsated outwards, reinforcing the defensive capabilities of the barrier, and thereby allowing Taiga to immediately propel himself upward for a better offensive position. Gathering his spiritual power to a focal point, Taiga cried, "Sōkatsui!" Converting that very energy into a powerful orb of light and heat - flames - Taiga spewed it at the so-called Heiliges Feuer that his opponent had thrown towards him, hoping to neutralize the flames that erupted from both parties. "This man is obviously a Kidō expert. The proficiency at which he displayed at such a distance earlier admits that. However, employing Kidō solely against a skilled Quincy, is a mistake. Far moreso, if you don't understand said Quincy's techniques," Manshin perceived, as he watched his enemy defend against the attacks, then moved up to attack. Using Hirenkyaku, Manshin propelled himself up into the air, arriving at the parallel height to his enemy. In the wake of the similar hued Kidō blast colliding into the inferno that was created below, a smile was still present on his face. Manshin lowered his bow and waved his left forefinger at him in a chiding manner, "For such an intelligent man, you don't seem to understand the aspects of Heiliges Feuer." As he would say so, the barrier that would be erected upon Taiga's defensive arm would have something strange happen to it. Instead of the initial defensive purposes that it was being made for, it would suddenly backfire, as the partial tongues that had lapped upon its substance would transform into a fuel source. That fuel source would ignite into superheated flames, and continue to burn upon the spiritual being as it would try to burn him alive, from the defending arm and around its proximate body parts. "Heiliges Feuer is a technique in which a Quincy ignites spiritual energy, and sets fire to anything of spiritual makeup, organic and energy alike," Swinging his forefinger around emphasis. This caused the flames below to rise up in a monstrous wave of flames to appear up and around their vicinity, causing Manshin's body became enshrouded with a menacing silhouette, with a contrastingly sharp glow coming from his eyes, "that's what makes being a physical being handy. While your spiritual body, composed entirely of spiritrons, is like fuel to the inferno that you've help create." Flicking his finger forward, the azure wall of flames converged upon Taiga's person, intent on devouring him in its super-heated embrace and scorch him into ashes. "Flammenmeer!" Manshin uttered in aftermath of the fiery force converging upon his enemy. As if without any warning, Taiga's very figure appeared to turn into nothing more than a ghost-like entity. The spiritual power that made up his being immediately split apart to the point where he existed as nothing more than a gas-like state. While this was likely to be detrimental to his being, it actually proved useful as a quick escape from the flames. As they were focused on an immediate target entirely, their "reishi-seeking" objective was, likely, negated for a brief moment. Their fuel source gone, Taiga was able to reconstruct himself at the end of the room, near a doorway, before sighing in relief. "Jeez...I probably should have been more careful." Taiga thought to himself, before looking at Manshin. "Ah, yes...I should've expected the reiryoku-absorbing qualities of these flames. A mishap, like all scientists do, indeed. Now, I believe it is my turn?" Taiga immediately clicked his fingers, causing the ceiling of the room to collapse, bringing down a large quantity of with it, targeted specifically at Manshin and his irritating blue flames. "How's this, for a change?" Taiga sneered, as he anticipated for the sekkiseki to negate the influence of the reishi-absorbing flames, as well as temporarily delay Manshin's advance. "Transparency? I don't sense the natural phenomena of Spirit Energy running through him. Its as if he truly vanished like a ghost, ironically given to what he is. A device must be anchored to his person to isolate his spiritual makeup from the atmosphere, allowing him to split through spiritual and spiritual devouring substances," Manshin analyzed as he witnessed his enemy dropping down to the ground, reforming at will on ground level. Then came down the roof of the artificially created building. Manshin grimaced with bewilderment with the man's fascination for destroying his own property with such casual attitude. What his eyes saw, however, wasn't a simple substance made of spirit energy but a void of darkness coming down in the form of individual spiritually blocking grains: Sekkiseki. "I can't defend or counter such a vast amount of anti-spirit mass heading towards me. Not only will my mass of acquired spirit energy be smothered, I might be doused with it. I rather not think of the consequences Sekkiseki are to Quincies, let alone human beings," Manshin thought quickly, as he dropped down to the center of the room itself. "Only a natural form of force can repel that much Sekkiseki, and divert it away from my person. I have no choice," Manshin planned out, as he deactivated his bow and swung each of his hands out to either of his flanks. This would cause the Heiliges Feuer to flow back to form a ring around him swiftly. As the debris came closer and closer, Manshin accelerated the rotation of azure tongues, causing it to glow nearly a pure white hue. With a resounding clap, Manshin shouted, "Sprengen!" causing the entire floor around him to explode, enveloping himself and the air with a powerful explosion. The pillar of flames discharged upwards, striking the ceiling mass of Sekkiseki, causing it to scatter and strike the wall and the outlining area of the room that Taiga took protection within. Within the smoldering, orange-flame ridden blast site, a slightly worn uniformed Manshin would walk out of the flames with nary a scratch as he smiled with amusement towards Taiga, chuckling with emphasis, "You seem to enjoy wrecking your own creations. Was I empathetic for such bland construction, Soul Reaper, I would be pained to see you act so recklessly just to slow me down." "Recklessly slow you down? You're quite foolish to think my actions are simply recklessness." Taiga taunted him, while making subtle hand gestures that collected several towards the general vicinity of Manshin, combusting the material that the lab was made out of to create a concussive explosion that attempted to devour Manshin. All the while, Taiga simply clicked his fingers to create a large veil of deep red smoke to obscure his own position, leaving no smoke to enter an immediate distance of 25 meters from Manshin. "He seems to be stalling," Manshin observed as he saw his enemy gesture and attempt to conceal himself, "either he's calling in the rest of his compatriots to assist him, or he has another wild card ready to be primed. Either way, I cannot linger anymore. The games end now!" With that in mind, Manshin swung out both hands to either side and slammed the palms together. The force of which he generated, had enough pressurized force, that all of the Shakkahos were sent barreling backwards. The wind furthermore blew away the smoke that was summoned to conceal Taiga's position. Within the shower of chaotic explosions, Manshin's eyes narrowed upon Taiga's person, smiling with satisfaction. He then moved. WHOOSH! The speed of which me jettisoned himself towards Taiga, would rival that of any high-speed specialist of any spectrum. With his form upon Taiga within an instant, a hand reached out and thrust a palm-heel towards his sternum. The force not only would ensure it would bypass any half-assed barriers he'd throw up at the last moment, but it would focus on the pressure point to temporarily cause lack of circulation of spirit energy to the limbs of his body. "Please stop stalling," Manshin whispered with a menacing grin on his face, "if you keep hiding behind such petty tricks, I'm going to develop a nasty temper." Taiga smirked viciously, and in a twist of irony, caused a unique ward to appear almost precisely where Taiga was about to be hit. The ward was not a barrier, but rather, it was a mirror image of Manshin's strike: the two forces equated to create a small shockwave, while causing Taiga to take a few steps backward. In an almost mocking tone, he replied to Manshin, "Petty tricks? I thought you were an intellectual, my friend. Petty tricks are what make up the entirety of our arsenal!" And while Taiga stated that, he internally cursed himself for not possessing a more offensive outlet of abilities modified for Quincy - he'd work on that. In the meantime, he took out three pouches ornate with unique sigils, and threw them towards Manshin. The bags erupted with spiritual energy: the first released a , the second released intertwined with the chain, while the third that began to surround the entirety of Manshin's being. "You see what I mean, Quincy?" Manshin hardly seemed worried, even as the trifecta of binding Kidō began to entwine around his person. His eyes stared at Taiga with unintimidated eyes, barely batting an eye down at the spells wrapped around his midsection and arms, "Oh yes. Your only means of attack and defense. But honestly, Captain..." With a simple flex along his biceps and triceps, a sudden cracking noise would be heard by the constructs. With a pair of clenched fists swinging out in either direction, the entire conglomerate of multi-colored binding spells would shatter into individual components of spirit energy. "...I've seen better," he answered in retort, cocking a smile towards his direction. "Ah dear...faster than I anticipated." Taiga remarked back towards Manshin, before sighing. "It appears I have run out of petty tricks myself. You want data, right?" Taiga asked, before throwing him an ornate and subsequently sat back on one of the chairs in the room. "Most of the Gotei would have heard our commotion, and to my Shakonmaku's knowledge, you're the only here from your little band of...whatever you are. If you don't want to get murdered by rather irritated Shinigami who hate your guts, you should probably get a move on. Here," Taiga paused for a moment, opening a Senkaimon within his laboratory. "Take that exit and hop out of here, thanks."